Big hike for CenHud Feb. bills

Saturday

Feb 8, 2014 at 2:00 AM

Customers of Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corp. are in for a shock when they open their February utility bills. The price of natural gas spiked last month as furnaces across the Northeast ran around the clock to combat the frigid cold. Those price spikes will begin showing up this month in customers' bills. Central Hudson's residential customers can expect gas bills to run roughly 25 percent higher than normal this month, and electric bills are likely to jump about 38 percent, according to spokesman John Maserjian. The precise increases will vary depending on customers' energy use and when in the month they receive their bills.

MICHAEL LEVENSOHN

Customers of Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corp. are in for a shock when they open their February utility bills.

The price of natural gas spiked last month as furnaces across the Northeast ran around the clock to combat the frigid cold.

Those price spikes will begin showing up this month in customers' bills.

Central Hudson's residential customers can expect gas bills to run roughly 25 percent higher than normal this month, and electric bills are likely to jump about 38 percent, according to spokesman John Maserjian.

The precise increases will vary depending on customers' energy use and when in the month they receive their bills.

"It's because of the extremely high commodity prices we experienced last month, during that cold snap," Maserjian said. "Like many utilities across the country, we purchase natural gas on the spot market for the coldest days. Because demand across the country was so high, the market price spiked on those days."

The spot price of electricity jumped last month as well, since many power plants burn natural gas.

Central Hudson customers set a record for gas consumption on Jan. 21, then smashed it the very next day. Central Hudson paid more on the spot market to meet that demand, and the utility will begin to pass that expenditure on to customers in the February bills.

Customers will actually continue paying for the January spike right through this summer. To take a little of the sting out of this month's bills, Central Hudson is spreading a portion of the increase out through August.

Orange and Rockland Utilities Inc. announced last week that its customers will also pay more in February, projecting increases of 21 percent for gas bills and 5 percent for electric compared with January.